Butterflies: A Natural History

Description:

Butterflies have never been more popular. The membership of Butterfly Conservation alone has now reached over 33,000 people and is growing at around 3,000 per year. Added to this, over 110,000 people take part annually in the Big Butterfly Count.

This new addition to the British Wildlife Collection is a unique take on butterfly behaviour and ecology, written by the former Chief Exec of Butterfly Conservation. It explores the secret lives of our British species (also drawing on comparative examples from Continental Europe), revealing how they have become adapted to survive in such a highly competitive natural world.

Combining personal anecdote with the latest discoveries in the scientific literature, the friendly yet informative text covers everything from why we love butterflies, their life history from egg through chrysalis to adult, population dynamics and how butterflies use the British landscape, their struggle for survival in a vicious world of predators and parasites, the miracle of migration, changing numbers during the twentieth century, and the significance of managing habitats at a landscape scale. It ends with a passionate plea for their conservation. It is the ultimate guide to what makes butterflies tick and how we can conserve them.